Mr SETTER - 1994-11-29
Mr Speaker, can the minister confirm that the Business Asia section of The Australian has rated the Northern Territory government's trade agencies ahead of all other national, state and territory agencies as providing the best service to the private sector Australia-wide?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I am very pleased to be able to stand in this Chamber and tell Territorians that our frontline trade agencies - namely, the Ministry of Asian Relations and Trade, the Department of Industries and Development, and the Trade Development Zone - have been found in an Australia-wide survey to have provided the best service by 65.6% of respondents. The Leader of the Opposition can look a little uninterested but he should be much more interested because he is the shadow spokesman on this area.
Mr Ede interjecting.
Mr STONE: It is all very well for him to say that, but I did not see him issuing any media release or congratulating the department and its personnel on this quite outstanding achievement. What The Australian's Business Asia section found was that Northern Territory agencies have out-rated even national organisations such as APEC and Austrade which rated
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55.2% and 54.7% respectively. It needs to be borne in mind that a number of those agencies have very large budgets compared with the modest budgets that the Territory has for this type of activity. It is worth noting also that the equivalent organisations in New South Wales rated 27.4% and those in Victoria rated 38.6%. Therefore, this is a very ...
Mr Ede interjecting.
Mr STONE: The Leader of the Opposition, the opposition's spokesman for this particular area, again offers nothing but criticism and regards it all as something of a joke. However, the simple fact is ...
Mr Ede: It goes to show that the more money you put towards it, the better you do.
Mr STONE: He is full of smart interjections.
Mr Ede: It seems to be the truth, doesn't it?
Mr STONE: One would have thought that, when this became public last week through The Australian, a national newspaper, the Leader of the Opposition would have been on the airwaves, on television and elsewhere in the print media offering his congratulations, but he did not do that.
Mr Ede: There was no room because you took up all the space.
Mr STONE: He did not offer a single word of congratulation. However, if there had been an adverse finding in that research, we would have heard all about it because the Leader of the Opposition focuses best on failure. Failure is what he knows most about. He has to be the greatest failure that the opposition has ever produced.
Mr Ede: Tell us about the Trade Development Zone!
Mr STONE: The other day, my colleague asked why your predecessor won 2 extra seats and lost his job whereas you lost 2 seats ...
Mr Stirling interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr STONE: ... but kept your job. Why don't you get out on the streets and congratulate the staff of the Ministry of Asian Relations and Trade, the Trade Development Zone and the Department of Industries and Development because, based on this survey, they are twice as good as their counterparts elsewhere in Australia.
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ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I am very pleased to be able to stand in this Chamber and tell Territorians that our frontline trade agencies - namely, the Ministry of Asian Relations and Trade, the Department of Industries and Development, and the Trade Development Zone - have been found in an Australia-wide survey to have provided the best service by 65.6% of respondents. The Leader of the Opposition can look a little uninterested but he should be much more interested because he is the shadow spokesman on this area.
Mr Ede interjecting.
Mr STONE: It is all very well for him to say that, but I did not see him issuing any media release or congratulating the department and its personnel on this quite outstanding achievement. What The Australian's Business Asia section found was that Northern Territory agencies have out-rated even national organisations such as APEC and Austrade which rated
Page 341
55.2% and 54.7% respectively. It needs to be borne in mind that a number of those agencies have very large budgets compared with the modest budgets that the Territory has for this type of activity. It is worth noting also that the equivalent organisations in New South Wales rated 27.4% and those in Victoria rated 38.6%. Therefore, this is a very ...
Mr Ede interjecting.
Mr STONE: The Leader of the Opposition, the opposition's spokesman for this particular area, again offers nothing but criticism and regards it all as something of a joke. However, the simple fact is ...
Mr Ede: It goes to show that the more money you put towards it, the better you do.
Mr STONE: He is full of smart interjections.
Mr Ede: It seems to be the truth, doesn't it?
Mr STONE: One would have thought that, when this became public last week through The Australian, a national newspaper, the Leader of the Opposition would have been on the airwaves, on television and elsewhere in the print media offering his congratulations, but he did not do that.
Mr Ede: There was no room because you took up all the space.
Mr STONE: He did not offer a single word of congratulation. However, if there had been an adverse finding in that research, we would have heard all about it because the Leader of the Opposition focuses best on failure. Failure is what he knows most about. He has to be the greatest failure that the opposition has ever produced.
Mr Ede: Tell us about the Trade Development Zone!
Mr STONE: The other day, my colleague asked why your predecessor won 2 extra seats and lost his job whereas you lost 2 seats ...
Mr Stirling interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr STONE: ... but kept your job. Why don't you get out on the streets and congratulate the staff of the Ministry of Asian Relations and Trade, the Trade Development Zone and the Department of Industries and Development because, based on this survey, they are twice as good as their counterparts elsewhere in Australia.
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Last updated: 09 Aug 2016